IDOLATRY AND DEFEAT. 229

IDOLATRY AND DEFEAT.

<‘ Not to our names, Thou only just and true,
Not to our worthless names is glory due;
Thy power and grace, thy truth and justice claim
Immortal honours to thy sovereign name ;
Thine through the earth from heaven, thy blest abode,
Nor let the heathens say, ‘ And where’s your God?’

4¢ Heaven is thine higher court, there stands thy throne,
And through the lower worlds thy will is done ;
Our God framed all this earth, these heavens he spread;
But fools adore the gods their hands have made;
The kneeling crowd, with looks devout, behold
Their silver saviours, and their saints of gold.

““ Vain are those artful shapes of eyes and ears;
The molten image neither sees nor hears;
Their hands are helpless, nor their feet can move,
They have no speech, nor thought, nor power, nor love;
Yet sottish mortals make their long complaints
To their deaf idols, and their moveless saints.

“« The rich have statues well adorn’d with gold ;
The poor, content with gods of coarser mould,
With tools of iron carve the senseless stock,

Lopt from a tree, or broken from a rock ;
People and priest drive on the solemn trade,
And trust the gods that saws and hammers made.

« Be heaven and earth amaz’d! ‘tis hard to say
Which is more stupid, or their gods or they:
Oh Israel, trust the Lord, He hears and sees,
He knows thy sorrows, and restores thy peace ;
His worship does a thousand comforts yield,
He is thy help, and He thy heavenly shield.”
Watts.